Letter grades to return to Billerica report cards

After frustration from parents and students over a new report card with numbers, Superintendent of Schools Tim Piwowar and the administration are implementing a hybrid grading system.

Piwowar gave a presentation at Monday's School Committee meeting, showing that sixth- and seventh-grade report cards will have both letter grades and corresponding number grades this fall.

In January, Billerica parent Deb Burke created a petition to return sixth-grade report cards to the traditional letter grade over the new standards-based numerical formula adopted in the fall. The petition received 639 online signatures.

The administration noticed how upset parents and students were with the new system, and adjustments have been made for a "hybrid look," Piwowar said.

"Parents and students didn't look at the report card and get an overall sense of how they were doing," the superintendent said. "It's not going to make everyone happy, but I'm confident that next year's implementation will be better than this year's.

"I believe this bridges the gap from what we heard from parents and students," Piwowar added.

The new system required teachers to tack a number, ranging from 1 to 4, alongside various classroom subject matter. Officials have said it was instituted because the state adopted new curriculum frameworks in math and English-language arts.

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Rather than an all-encompassing grade, sixth-graders have received numerous grades in each subject based on goals to be met. For the numeric system, a 4 means "the student consistently meets and often exceeds the standard," while a 1 means "the student is not meeting the standard at the present time."

"The old version of letter grades doesn't tell you much information about how a student is doing, so we changed to the standards-based system," Piwowar said. "In the old system, you can do great on tests but never do homework and get the same grade as someone who did bad on tests and always puts in hard work.

"The letter doesn't really tell anybody very much."

But the letters will now come back to the middle-school report cards. Sixth- and seventh-graders will have a hybrid system starting in September, and eighth-graders will join in fall 2014.

"It came from a lot of listening to parents and students," Piwowar said. "Have there been bumps in the road? Absolutely. But based upon feedback, this is a good step. We know we need to keep listening and keep our ears to the ground.

"And ultimately, it's not about the report cards," he added. "It's ultimately about learning and providing the opportunity for every student to learn and improve."

The administration still needs to figure out the conversion scale from numbers to letters, Piwowar said. Report cards in the fall will have letter grades for the core subjects and then numbers for the subjects' subcategories.

At a Feb. 4 School Committee meeting, parents clapped when there was any mention of an idea to attach hybrid letter grades to the standards-based report cards.

Donna Donovan, who signed the online petition and has four grandchildren who will soon attend middle school in Billerica, said adding the letters again is an improvement; however, she doesn't think it goes far enough.

"I really hope it changes all the way back," Donovan said. "The letters make it more satisfying for the kids.

"And I don't like that Billerica is the only one doing the numbers," she added. "You can't compare it to other districts."

Also at this week's meeting, Piwowar gave an update on the principal search at Hajjar Elementary School. He said the fourth candidate, Michelle Massa, canceled her visit and public interview on April 30, dropping out of the search.

Piwowar couldn't comment on why Massa, the principal at Everett's Madeline English Elementary School, was no longer interested in the position.

Three candidates visited the school and had public interviews last week. They are Ron Tomlin, principal at East Brookfield Elementary School; Margaret Shepherd, Race to the Top coordinator at Lowell Public Schools; and Elizabeth Devine, principal at Tyngsboro Elementary School.

"We're now talking with students and staff to see what they thought about the principal candidates," Piwowar said. "I'm happy that the screening committee has put forward some great candidates for the final round of the principal search, and I look forward to making a decision for a principal going forward."

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